It is known to vulcanize uncured or green tires using a mold in a tire press. A tire bladder is inserted inside the mold and the green tire and inflated to press the green tire into the sidewall and tread forming surfaces of the mold as heat and pressure are applied to the tire to cure it. After a predetermined time the mold is opened and the cured tire is removed from the press.
Because of the lack of control inherent to toroidal expansion of a tire carcass in conventional tire building processes, it has been proposed to build a tire from components applied to a segmented core dimensioned and configured close to the finished tire. The core includes multiple segments extending generally radially from a central axis. Each core segment has an outer surface that together, with the other segment outer surfaces, define a toroidal outer surface on which a tire may be constructed. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/292,991 entitled “TIRE BUILDING CORE LATCHING AND TRANSPORT MECHANISM, filed Dec. 2, 2005 and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/293,397 entitled “HEATED TIRE BUILDING CORE ASSEMBLY AND METHOD”, filed Dec. 2, 2005. disclose one such segmented core. In using a segmented core for the construction of a tire it is necessary to manipulate the multiple core segments that define the tire building surface during disassembly and reassembly. An efficient apparatus and method for accomplishing core segment manipulation is, accordingly, desired and heretofore not achieved.